Somewhere in that fine mess, Sonera figured she could hear something - anything resembling the battle that unfolded before her very eyes. Though in the end, all she could detect was her own heartbeat, along with a searing pain in her chest. It was only through her resilience that the girl did not burst into flames right then and there.
"W-what is...happening to me?" Sonera choked.
She expected to be nothing short of exhausted. But those rules only seemed to apply to Ivy, who remained incapacitated.
"Sonera!" A voice called out to her.
Sonera struggled to avert her gaze from the heiress as guilt continued to assail her. It was only through a violent splash of sand that she came to her senses and noticed the princess standing guard over her. For not even in Sonera's lowest moment could Lunae abandon her.
"We need you!" Lunae gritted her teeth, using a Psionic barrier to shield her partner from a wave of shrapnel.
The Consortium was hurling all manner of explosives down on the arena. A solid strategy, to be sure, considering the speed of their opponents. Everything the girls had been through prepared them for this moment. Simply put, they weren't afraid anymore.
"I..." Sonera hesitated.
The princess pinned her partner to the sand with a firm hand, simmering with a rage never seen before. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself and start thinking of ways to actually help! It's not your fault! But if you sit here and do nothing, it will be!"
Sonera's eyes fluttered in disbelief. She deserved the comment, no doubt, but to hear it from Lunae was most unsettling. Still, the assassin had to do something.
"Can I fight?" She stared up at Lunae like a wet cat.
Lunae gave a concerned frown. The exact principles of when or how a Psion could regenerate were beyond her means. And yet, she could easily distinguish the flame coiled within Sonera as a sign of vitality.
"Whatever's happening to you-." Her beautiful face brought a pathetic sense of relief to Sonera's beaten expression. "No matter what you become Sonera. Fight. Fight for your family. Fight for me."
Somewhere in the universe, Lunae could sense her mother's praise.
"Okay," Sonera whimpered.
The girl's meek nod didn't exactly scream conviction. But the weight of her heels, however, had something else to say. And just in the nick of time, too, for the shimmering silhouette behind Lunae had come mere seconds from running her through with its lance.
"Nngh!" The princess stumbled back, overwhelmed by the displacement of air caused by Sonera's sudden burst of movement.
The Vesper, whom Lunae realized had nearly been her end, received the blow well enough thanks to its shielding. The black coloration on its armor must have denoted a higher rank. Not that Sonera cared, of course.
"Atta girl," Lunae smirked, her pupils beginning to distort. But her well of pride sank soon enough, for there was still another girl in dire need of support. Lunae could do little but trust Sonera as she made a break for Ivy.
In the meantime, and much to her annoyance, the arena was already beginning to crumble at the seams. The sheer volume of fire made it incredibly difficult to see. If not for their training, the Psions would surely have been felled by then.
And yet they fought on. Sonera dueled the black Vesper all on her own, containing who was most certainly the highest-ranking figure of the bunch. Mina and Lila were taking on a rather slippery Canere near the south end of the arena through smoke and ice. And as for Rena, who was frankly having the time of her life, there was practically no discernible strategy other than to kill whatever she could find.
"Hmm," Yrix mused. "Too easy."
The Arch-Flayer knew what she had to do. It was right there, the chance to complete her final trial. But despite her best efforts, there was another moment of hesitation.
Looking towards the sky, where Premus's flagship loomed overhead, she spat a nasty remark. "Are you going to do something about this? Maybe sometime this fiscal year?"
Premus grunted through the intercom with audible frustration. "We have yet to deploy our sharpest blades. Standby for progress. We can afford the attrition."
Yrix glanced back at Sonera, who had just caught the tip of a Vesper's tail with her bare hands. "Can you now?"
She was goading her underling into saying the words.
"And when will you, Arch-Flayer, lift a claw?" Premus snorted.
"The right time," Yrix flicked her wrist towards one particular girl. "Then we'll see what she's really made of."
Truth be told, things hadn't gone exactly as planned. But Yrix could improvise.
"Ack!" Ivy jolted. "L-Lunae?!"
The princess managed a fragile smirk. Her hands were still crackling with volt energy. Not her finest work, but it seemed to do the trick, as evidenced by Ivy's sudden revival.
"How did you-."
"Taught you to use Dina's power," Lunae shrugged, underestimating her own feat. "Had Lila deliver me a memory from her twin. Put it in you." Her tail flicked about the sand.
Ivy watched from over Lunae's shoulder as the brave Earthling came into view. She was in the middle of performing some sort of absurd bicycle kick on a Canere, shattering its shield with a bit of help from her boots. To say Ivy was proud would be something of an understatement. She loved nothing more than to see Lila fight with increasing talent.
"Fuck-a you!" The Earthling smiled, stealing a sledgehammer-sized grenade from a Daregen right as the beast was about to toss it at Rena. "And you!" She darted over to a group of lesser Psions who had taken a vantage point from the spectator's seat, delivering them a cordial explosion. "Oh, and you! Yeah, you too! Fuck you especially!"
Ivy could barely track her frantic movements. But one thing was for sure: Lila wasn't slowing down. The weight of her partner's condition, along with the chance to finally rebel, had given her an endless supply of excitement.
It was only when a pack of Xenquar appeared did Lila slow herself. She had yet to face anything quite like the ferocious creatures since her hunt with Imura, which proved somewhat alarming. Yet just when it seemed she was cornered, Sonera came crashing through the dogs with a whirlwind of dust and flame.
"Yea!" Lila cheered. "You gettem girly! Slay!"
Sonera couldn't bear to look back at her. But that was not the time for long conversations about forgiveness. And Lila knew it.
"If we get everyone towards that gate over yonder!" Lila pointed to the south side - the only remaining corner of the arena not completely caved in. "Rena can mist us through!"
"Got it." Sonera gave a cold shoulder. "Follow me."
Yrix observed the girls enact their plan. It was obvious they wanted to escape with Ivy in tow.
"Preparing Inferno-Strike," Premus warned his superior over the intercom as his ship sounded off a deafening horn. "They are congregating."
"Belay that," Yrix waved her hand and hissed. "I got this."
"All of them?"
"Just...one..."
Through the smoke and flames, Yrix could see her target clear as day. She was shining like a beacon, wounded as she may have been. For while it was true she came to the others like a spoiled child, she had fast become their anchor. To end her, and in such a vulnerable state, would finally give Yrix the push she needed.
"This game ends now." Yrix crossed her arms, calling upon a pool of sapphire energy that began to take the shape of a longbow. "Resistance was never really an option."
She swept her hand through the air in a circular motion, opening a portal above her that shone like a halo.
"Just understand." Yrix reached through the void, pulling out a barbed arrow that glimmered like starlight. "It was never personal.
The Arch-Flayer nocked the arrow. Her students were making progress by then, empowered by the vain hope that their efforts meant something.
How terribly naive.
Yrix aimed, divesting herself of all hesitation. The air around her swirled with a choking miasma of purple starlight. And with one final tug, she let her arrow loose.
Sonera heard the crack of Yrix's bowstring. She alone had sensed the approaching storm. It was her immutable guilt that had then placed her in the path of the arrow, shielding herself with blade in hand, knowing full well that this moment could be her last.
"Oh." Yrix's eye widened.
A calamitous explosion engulfed the arena, sundering all manner of prey, both small and large.
"I see."
"How curious."
Anyone else would have called that overkill. But Yrix knew her students well. Only a direct hit would have removed Ivy from the board.
"Stand down." Yrix flapped her hand at the dust, annoyed by its presence. "Only fire if I tell you to."
The voice of her Executor Premus barely made it through the intercom. "Are they slain?"
"Not yet."